Unified Model
Unified Model
About the UM
The Unified Model is used by the UK Met Office for operational numerical weather prediction and by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research to simulate and predict the Earth’s climate.
The UM can be used in atmosphere only mode, or coupled to other models including, but not limited to, the NEMO ocean and CICE sea-ice models via the OASIS coupler, UKCA chemistry and aerosols and the JULES land-surface model. It can also be used in other modes, including Single Column Model (SCM), Aquaplanet & Exoplanet.
Running the UM
NCAS-CMS installs and maintains supported UM versions, workflow tools and other associated software on the UK national high performance computer, ARCHER2, via the PUMA2 service. All NCAS researchers can use the UM on this service, details of getting accounts can be found here.
The UM is a complex software system; new users should either:
- attend one of our organized UM Introduction training courses; or
- complete the online training.
This covers all the essential information needed in order to run a UM suite on ARCHER2, including, how to set up your environment, common errors, use of the workflow management software, source code management, etc.
UM Versions
The UM undergoes significant changes as new scientific enhancements are introduced or new features are added, and so the Met Office release new versions approx. 3-4 times a year. NCAS-CMS only supports a subset of the versions that have been released.
| ARCHER2: | 7.3 | 8.4 | 10.7 | 11.x | 12.x | 13.x |
| Monsoon3: | 13.x |
The UM source code is held in the Met Office Science Repository Service (MOSRS), along with documentation relating to new versions, including the UM User Guides.
UM Configurations
In order to run the model, users need to have access to a set of files that will enable them to run a particular scientific version of the climate model (describing exactly the physical and dynamical choices within the UM system). NCAS-CMS port certain “standard” configurations to the National HPC system ARCHER2.
See the UM Configurations page for full details on suites that have been ported to ARCHER2.
JASMIN archiving
CMS have set up the infrastructure for automatic archiving of data from ARCHER2 to JASMIN. To include this in your workflow, follow the instructions below: